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4a. Join an Existing Active Directory Domain

If you have an existing Active Directory domain which your new domain controller will be joining, you need to prepare the existing Active Directory in advance of the installation, and then promote the new Domain Controller into your domain.

In this document we will refer to your new domain controller on the server as ZDC. ZDC is a Windows Server 2012R2 Virtual Machine running on your server. You can find the IP address of ZDC in the Commissioning Console. The last octet of the IP address for ZDC is .144

Step 2: Ensure there is network connectivity between your existing Domain Controller and the Virtual Machines running on your server

Firstly, make sure that you have connected the LAN port of your server into a network switch on the Local Area Network.

You need to ensure that there is network connectivity between your new and existing domain controllers, and a good test for network connectivity is to check you can ping the IP address of ZDC (the new domain controller); from your existing domain controller.

Log in to your existing domain controller, open Command Prompt and ping the IP address of ZDC: ping 10.x.x.144 (you can find this IP address in the Commissioning Console)

If you get a reply from ping, proceed onto Step 3.

If there is no network connectivity you will need to add a route to your existing default gateway network device, on the existing LAN.

The route needs to send all traffic destined for the Virtual machines running on the server to be correctly routed to the IP address you have assigned of the LAN port of your server. (you enter the LAN IP address in the Commissioning Console)

You can find out the Virtual Machine Network ID and Subnet Mask in the Commissioning Console on the Site information tab.

Assuming the Virtual Machine IP range (inside the server) is 10.10.0.128/25, and the LAN port IP address is 192.168.1.2, then the LAN-side static route you need to add on the existing default gateway network device would be:

route add 10.10.0.128 mask 255.255.255.128 192.168.1.2

For further information on adding static routes and why they are required please view the article Static Routes.

Test the static route has worked by doing a simple ping test from your existing domain controller to the IP address of ZDC, your new domain controller (as explained above). When you have confirmed network connectivity, proceed onto the next step.

Step 3: Check the status of your new domain controller

Check in the Commissioning Console to see if your new domain controller is ready to be promoted.

In the Commissioning Console, click on the Active Directory tab. The status should be In-Progress and you should see a message saying: Waiting for manual domain controller promotion (DCpromo). See the below screenshot

If this message isnt there, you just need to wait for all the automated installation and commissioning tasks to be completed.

Step 4: Log in to the Domain Controller virtual machine and join to your existing domain.

The VM which will become the domain controller is called ZDC.

Connect your computer into the network switch where the servers LAN port is connected. If you have enabled DHCP in the Commissioning Console, your computer will get an IP address automatically. If DHCP is disabled you will need to configure your computer with an IP address in the LAN range.

Using the Remote Desktop client on your computer, logon to the ZDC (Domain Controller) virtual machine. You get the IP address for ZDC from the Commissioning Console. You can use the default username and password to logon:

Username: administratorPassword: sk@Ie2vHfV

(this password is changed during the installation process)

Step 5: Run the Domain Join script

On the desktop of ZDC, there is a powershell script which will join ZDC (the new domain controller) to your existing domain, check everything is ready it to be promoted to a domain controller, and then promote it to be a domain controller